Wholesale Price: Ketapang / Indian Almond / Terminalia catappa Leaves

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amylim

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2006
6
0
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Singapore
Hi MKFers,

First of all, I would like to thank Mei Ling for introducing me to this great website. Secondly, thanks, Webmaster, for your permission and invitation to sell my leaves here. I am quite sure it will benefit many of the forummers here as my price are, if I may say, amongst the lowest for such good quality leaves.

About Me

I am actually a homemaker... who has become quite an expert on Terminalia catappa leaves, having sold more than 19,000 leaves to satisfied customers mostly through Aquabid & Ebay (read testimonials below).

I started picking and selling Ketapang leaves initially as a project for my children. You see, we want them to be responsible for their own pets (fish and hamster etc). So we thought of a way for them to earn their own pocket money to buy their pet supplies (of course we do not require them to pay for anything else -- we just want them to learn responsibility in regard to their pets).

Since my husband occasionally collects the Ketapang leaves for breeding his bettas and shrimps; we decided to collect more to sell. Not realising that there were others selling the leaves at much higher price, we began to sell it at a price we thought to be reasonable. We did not increase the price a lot even when we knew about other suppliers. So our price is extremely competitive for such good quality leaves – regardless of whether you are buying a few or in bulk.

Today my children still collect some of the leaves whenever they can, and my retired father has also joined in the effort. I reimburse them for whatever they collect. But I now do all the washing and the quality control… rejecting sometimes up to 80% of the leaves collected. These leaves that are rejected are thrown away if they are too bleached (and therefore thin and useless – will not tan the water) or too green (and therefore will pollute the water if used, or will become mouldy in transit). If the leaves are torn but still thick and useable, they are set aside for sale as low grade leaves (sold by weight).

The whole process of picking, washing, quality control and packing involves quite a lot of work and time. But it supplements our modest family income.

Product

Ketapang or Sea Almond or Indian Almond or Terminalia catappa leaves are known to most, if not all Asian breeders of blackwater tropical fishes, to be one of the best water conditioners to promote healing and breeding. They are known to have antibacteria and antifungal properties. Bettas are known to be induced to spawn by just putting a few of the leaves into their tank. Fish suffering finrot or injuries (such as spawning injuries) will definitely benefit from having the leaves in their quarantine tub. But they can be used for the usual aquariums too.

When soaked in water these leaves will leach a strong brown dye that is full of organic acids like humic acids and tannic acids. These may be useful for inhibiting many types of bacteria as well as to detoxify harmful heavy metals found in the aquarium. But that is not all!

Referring to leaves from the Terminalia catappa tree, Dr Robert J. Goldstein (not the podiatrist- wannabe terrorist of Florida; but the aquarist and environmental consultant of North Carolina who wrote numerous book on fish-keepings), writes in his 2002 paper entitled “Water Conditioners and Additives”:

The large, leathery leaves are used in folk medicine to treat infections, indigestion, and other medical conditions. The water extract makes a pharmacologically powerful tea… In southeast Asia, betta breeders add a dried leaf to provide a surface for the bubblenest and to leach substances that protect the fry from diseases. As the leaves decay, they also provide detritus to grow extract-resistant infusoria for the babies. Of 35 aromatic (ring structure) substances identified from these leaves, noteworthy were benzene-acetaldehyde, acetones, and sabinen-hydrate. The first is strongly antimicrobial, and several of the 35 others destroy microbial cell membranes.​

And he adds:

“So these leaves are not simply sources of stains and tannins and other acids as we would get from oak or hickory, but rich in many other kinds of complex and highly effective chemicals with a wide range of physiological and antimicrobial effects.”​

Most of your leaves will be between 7-10" (and sometimes reaching up to 12"). They are selectively collected from leaves that have naturally fallen and of good quality. See my introduction above, and see photo for indication of quality (colour hue may vary from batch to batch, but all leaves that are greenish or smell green are rejected). And yes, in case you are wondering, the leaves in the photo are crispy dry.

You may wish to note that our leaves are selective picked from those that have naturally fallen from the trees after turning red in a natural chemical/biological process. These are the leaves that tan the blackwater streams in the forest where bettas and arowanas are found. We do not harvest fresh leaves from the trees and dry them. If we do that, the leaves will look very nice and indeed easier to obtain; but we doubt their efficacy for aquatic use. My husband will never use such leaves; and we do not know of any tropical fish breeder who will. All the breeders we know who use Ketapang Leaves will only use naturally fallen and dried ones. Indeed, if you try these naturally fallen leaves once, you will probably never go back to freshly harvested leaves! They have an aromatic smell that freshly harvested leaves do not have (it was this sweet smell that first led breeders and herbalists to suspect that they have beneficial properties), and they have a reddish tinge absent from freshly harvested leaves.

Dosage

For bettas, put a 1-2 sq inch piece (or a quarter of a leaf) into each 1 gallons (4 litre) jar. For usual aquarium (with tetras, gouramis, arrowanas, apistos etc), put 2-3 leaves per 25 gallons (100 litres) of water for 14-21 days. Simply put the leaves into the aquarium. After 1-2 days the leaves will be water-logged and sink. Apart from their benefical effects on the water, they will tan the water slightly (to a clear amber) and provide a very natural river-bottom look to your aquarium. Alternatively, you can boil the leaves to make blackwater extract and dose when you need. Soaking the leaves in a bucket for a week will produce a similar result.

Quality Assurance

All our leaves goes through a four-level quality control: first at picking. We only pick leaves that are not green and not too bleached, whole, and not torn or have large holes (Indian Almond is one of the most delicious trees, so they very likely to get infested by caterpillars — which in itself is a good indication that the tree is not covered with toxic substances). Our second level occurs at the washing and drying process. Some leaves are thrown away at these stage (e.g. leaves that are too dirty, or looks/smells bad). Our third level occurs at grade sorting. We are using a 3 grade system: Large quality (7"+), tiny quality (6"-) and lower grade. Lower grade leaves are those that are still usable but have tears from washing or have too many holes. These are sold at half price. Our fourth level quality control occurs at packing. As each leave is packed into the ziploc bag, some leaves which passed through the third level are downgraded.

Another level of quality assurance is that the water I use for washing the leaves actually goes into two 4 ft tanks where we keep some fishes. If in the slim chance that any of the leaves are tainted with atmopheric pollutants harmful to the fishes, we would know and, you can be sure I will reject the whole batch of leaves. This has not happen thus far in the several months we have been in the business.

Handling & Shipping

The leaves have been washed and dried and are ready for delivery. They should arrive within 2 weeks for most destinations in US, UK and Europe. They may be used immediately upon arrival.

Utmost care is taken to ensure that your leaves arrive in a good condition. If I have to buy a bigger box or pay more for postage for this purpose, I will do so at no extra cost to you. This makes my profit margin very low. But I consider this to be not just a business, but a service.

However, occassionally some of the leave will suffer some cracks as they are thoroughly dried. Such cracks, of course would no diminish the efficacy of the leaves.

Shipping Cost​

This is estimated through experience. See actual shipping cost in the table below. I will pay any excess (and usually there is an excess due to larger leaves)! Shipping is guaranteed through re-shipments at not extra cost to you. I have had customers who ended up with 2 packages at the price of 1 due to postage delays. My postage fee may appear to be little higher because of LARGER and thicker leaves as well as proper packaging. I don't earn anything from postage (everything you pay goes to the post-office), but I try to keep the price of my leaves low to make it affordable to you.

Price Guarantee

I keep my price low as a principle (For the LORD our Creator provides the leaves freely, and all I do is select, wash, dry, sort, pack and send!). I also keep my price low by putting up only as many ads as I can be fairly confident there will be a buyer. I doubt that you can find the same quantity of similar quality leaves at a price (including Postage) that is lower than my offer price.

Why Buy in Bulk (100+)?​

Not only is it cheaper and you do not need to keep buying, but the leaves have practically no shelf life. So I will encourage you to buy in bulk rather than in small quantities unless you are very new to the leaves and would like to try them for yourself.

Price Table

no. pieces--MFK Discounted Price--Airmail---TOTAL-------Unit Price

10-----------$2.50---------------------$2.00----$4.50-------$0.450
20-----------$4.50---------------------$3.00----$7.50-------$0.375
50-----------$7.50---------------------$5.00----$12.50------$0.250
100----------$13.00-------------------$11.00--$24.00-------$0.240
200----------$23.00-------------------$22.00--$45.00-------$0.225
300----------$35.00-------------------$30.00--$65.00-------$0.217
500----------$55.00-------------------$40.00--$95.00-------$0.190
1000---------$105.00-----------------$75.00--$180.00------$0.180
2500---------$250.00-----------------$110.00-$360.00------$0.144
5000---------$475.00-----------------$220.00-$695.00------$0.139​

All prices in US Dollars. Seamail is not recommended but possible for anything more than 500 leaves. Write to inquire.

Please drop me a PM or an e-mail at limshamy@hotmail.com to purchase.

Payment will be through Paypal upon confirmation of order.​

Testimonials​

These are unsolicited comments that came through the email when my customers received the leaves. They are used here with their permission... though I have kept their name anonymous for privacy sake except for one who urged me to go ahead to use his id as he is quite a well-known supplier of aquatic products.

A customer from Italy wrote:

"As I'm writing, I have the two ziplock bags with the leaves in front of me. The leaves appear to be in perfect condition. The colour and scent are lovely, I'm amazed by the quality and the sheer size of these leaves...I think I now have enough ketapang to last for a lifetime! I want to congratulate you on your excellent job in selecting and packing the leaves. I am totally pleased with this transaction."

An Australian customer (of Melbourne) wrote:

"I just want to let you know that the leaves are fantastic. The smell and quality is unbelieveable."

A US customer (ebay id: Karmafarmaquatics) wrote:​

"I got them!… They are PERFECT!! Exactly what I wanted. I am SOOOOOO happy with the leaves!... I will be buying more as soon as these are gone. I will NEVER buy from anyone else ever again! … The last person who sent me leaves sent TINY leaves that were still green!! What a waste of money..... the leaves weren't even mature! By buying from you I am assured that i am getting leaves that are MATURE, which have fallen from the tree naturally."


Another US customer (of Phoenix, Arizona) wrote:

"I just received your almond leaves... The size and quality of the leaves are excellent and my Bettas love them. I had two pair just spawn this morning after I put them in the spawning tank last night with a nice chunk of leaf. .... They really are the best I have seen -- rich and dark in color. Even the smell is a lot stronger than ones I have used previously. The other ones I have used never tinted the water but these do just like the Atison's Betta Spa I used to use."

Yet another US customer (of Naperville, Illinois) wrote:​

I recieved the Indian Almond Leaves, yesterday. They are some of the best quaility I've ever purchased. When I am running low, I will be purchasing more from you, every time!

For More Information & Feedbacks:

Write to me, or find me at Aquabid as Amylim or Ebay as Amy-lim

Thank you for reading.

Thank you in advance for your business and your confidence.​

IMG_0303.jpg
 

Kuda

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2006
918
0
0
33
Benton,Ky
Yea they lower the PH a little, anyway i got 2 big gallon ziplock baggies packed full from another person on hear, i just dident like the black water but it does lower ph a lil
 

amylim

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2006
6
0
0
Singapore
R1_Ridah;517151; said:
Hello,

Does this affect the PH. Will it lower the PH ?
Yes, it does lower PH somewhat, though it depends on the original PH of the water. Take a look at meiling's thread http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37277

And yes, Kuda... Meiling was very generous to share the leaves at her expense. If she has any excess for sale, please do buy from her first. In fact, if Meiling does not mind, it may work out cheaper if you can place orders through her. If the total order is large enough, there will be substantial savings on postage even with US Postal charges added in. :)

~Amy
 

amylim

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2006
6
0
0
Singapore
MilitantPotato;534548; said:
What is the shelf life of thies leaves? Do they lose medicinal properties over time?

Thanks Amy.
So sorry for the long delayed reply.

If there is a shelf life for the leaves I am not aware of it. I think as long as the leaves are kept dry there is practically no shelf life. I have known of hobbyists who keep the leaves over a few years and continue to use them a bit at a time.

~Amy
 

ormed

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 14, 2006
53
0
0
Salt Lake City, UT
Yes, these leaves do have a shelf life, which is dependant upon the conditions that they are stored in. They are best kept in a cool, dark, dry environment. They will lose a significant amount of their medicinal strength after about 6-8 months, about 60%.
They're best kept in a moisture proof container in the refrigerator where they can maintain potence for a year and a half or more.
That being said, they won't lose there pH bufferring quality. I have used these leaves for years and you shouldn't underestimate their pH lowering strength. You can put them in your canister filter as a buffer that can maintain pH at 6.0

Randy
 
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